After Los Angeles Dodgers superstar Shohei Ohtani collected his 1,000th career hit on Wednesday by way of a two-run home run in the third inning, his response was to strikeout the side when he returned to the mound in the top of the fourth.
The unicorn allowed just two hits, an earned run over four innings, and hurled a season-high eight strikeouts in his eighth start of 2025.
President of baseball operations Andrew Friedman claimed that, according to Ohtani, this is only the beginning.
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“I think it’s more about evaluating after every outing,” Friedman said. “We’re doing this in a very methodical way and we’ll continue to build. Where that stops, we’re not sure yet. We’ll continue to monitor how he’s holding his stuff, how his body is responding, all of those different insights we can get after each outing. But we will continue to build up. To where and what does that mean, we’re not sure yet.
“But we want to make sure and do it in his first year in a very methodical way. He has designs of pitching for eight years after this and we want to make this as possible as we can.”
The slowplay to Ohtani’s return has been something that has tested the patience of many around the baseball world, but something that proves to be more worth it with seemingly every start.
When the three-time MVP first started his progressions to return to the mound, the anticipation built quickly, but the expectation was always to take one pitch at a time. It would be extremely unwise to lose a bat like Ohtani if he were to leave for a rehab assignment in Triple-A, so the rehab assignment is essentially in the form of his methodical return.
The immediate hope is that Ohtani can still pitch the same sharp and effective innings in October, but Friedman is rightfully looking further down the road per the two-way star’s wishes.
The novelty of watching Ohtani smash a home run and then strike out the side is certainly one-of-a-kind, but it can potentially be the Dodgers’ reality for the better part of the next decade.
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Photo Credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images
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